Case Study: Gonzaga University achieves major spend savings, boosted P‑card adoption, and full visibility with ESM Solutions

How Gonzaga transformed spend management with ESM

Gonzaga University, a Spokane, Wash. institution with about 7,600 students and a $313 million operating budget, faced uncontrolled off‑contract and rogue spend, low P‑card adoption, and limited visibility into purchases. To tackle these issues Gonzaga partnered with ESM Solutions and deployed ESM’s spend‑management/e‑procurement platform, providing an e‑commerce style buying experience plus catalog, contract and approval controls.

ESM Solutions steered users to negotiated contracts and approved suppliers, drove rapid P‑card adoption with an intuitive ordering flow, and delivered full spend visibility for analysis and policy enforcement. The vendor’s platform produced measurable results—immediate savings on routine purchases (reported examples of 75%, 50% and 30% savings), a boom in P‑card use, elimination of free‑wheeling spend, better pricing via direct ESM routing (e.g., B&H Photo), and freed procurement to focus on higher‑value work.

Gonzaga University

Steve Lunden

Director of Purchasing